Istiqlol

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Istiqlol
Истиқлол
Basic data
State : TajikistanTajikistan Tajikistan
Province : Sughd
Coordinates : 40 ° 34 '  N , 69 ° 39'  E Coordinates: 40 ° 34 '13 "  N , 69 ° 38' 30"  E
Height : 1191  m
Residents : 15,600 (2014)
Istiqlol (Tajikistan)
Istiqlol
Istiqlol

Istiqlol ( Tajik Истиқлол , until 2012 Taboshar, other transcriptions Taboshar, Tabošar, Tajik Табошар ) is a city in the province of Sughd in northern Tajikistan . The small town in the mountains on the northwestern edge of the Fergana Valley with around 15,600 inhabitants (2014) was largely built in the 1940s by deported Russian Germans who were used as prisoners of war in the nearby uranium mining. After a secret decree of November 1942, the first Soviet uranium processing plant was established in Taboshar. Uranium was mined here from 1945 to 1965 . A plant for processing uranium from other sites in the area was in operation until the early 1970s. The unsecured spoil heaps on the 400 hectare site are a health problem for the residents of the region.

location

Istiqlol is located at an altitude of over 1100 to over 1200 meters on the northern edge of the Ferghana Valley in a dry hilly area that belongs to the southern foothills of the Qurama Mountains . In its western part, it reaches a height of 3,023 meters and forms the border between Uzbekistan in the north and Tajikistan in the south, a few kilometers north of the city . In contrast to the fertile plain of the Ferghana Valley, the rocky hills, which are only sparsely overgrown with grass, do not allow any agricultural cultivation because there are no irrigation options. They only serve sheep and goats as grazing land.

The place is 37 kilometers from the provincial capital Khujand and can be reached on a good asphalt road leading north through a barely populated barren plain. A public bus runs regularly from a bus station on the northeastern outskirts to Istiqlol. About halfway along this route, a road branches off to the east to the Konsoi settlement (Russified, formerly officially Kansai). There the Aprelevka company , founded in 1995 , a joint venture with the participation of the Tajik state and a Chinese company, continues to exploit the gold deposits mined by the Soviet Union until 1990 . Aprelevka holds the license for additional gold deposits in Sughd Province. Another mining settlement, Tschoruqdarron (Tschoruch-Dairon), is located southwest of Konsoi , as is Sarnisor (formerly Altyn-Topkan) a good 10 km away north of the Qurama main ridge, to which a road leads from Istiqlol over a pass almost 2000  m high.

history

German houses on the main street
German apartment blocks on the street to the market in the southwest

Under Stalin in 1924, political borders in the Ferghana Valley were drawn through the settlement areas of the various ethnic groups, which should enable easier centralized control. In 1929 the Tajik SSR was split off from the Uzbek SSR as an independent Soviet republic. Many Uzbeks lived and still live in their part of the Ferghana Valley . During the Soviet period, the population of the Ferghana Valley increased significantly , mainly due to immigrant Russians and also due to the resettlement of residents from the Jagnob Valley . The newcomers expanded the existing cotton cultivation by installing large-scale irrigation systems.

In the 19th century the first Germans - there were few supporters of free church sects - founded settlements in the region of Khujand. Other Germans followed in the 1930s, and in Tajikistan they formed the smallest German group of all Soviet republics in the 1939 census of Armenia (433 Germans) in 2022. After the beginning of the German-Soviet War in 1941, the Soviet leadership dissolved the Volga German Republic and, according to an official list from December of the same year, expelled 856,168 Russian-Germans to Siberia and the Central Asian republics, especially Kazakhstan, between July and September 1941. The men were taken to concentration camps, while the families deported to the east consisted mostly of women and children. Russian Germans did not get to Tajikistan until 1945–46, where they lived in poor conditions and had to work in the cotton kolkhozes under extremely difficult conditions .

The first ore containing uranium and radium was mined in Tuyamuyun, southeast of Osh (Kyrgyzstan) in 1899 . The exploration of uranium-containing rocks initially for the extraction of radium began in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. In 1926 the first large site was discovered near Taboschar, which was the main uranium mining site of the Soviet Union before and after the Second World War. In the 1930s, the place received urban-type settlement status . A commission founded in 1940 was responsible for assessing the Soviet uranium deposits, but industrial exploitation did not begin until 1945 as part of an atomic bomb program . This led to the development of half a dozen more uranium deposits in the Fergana Valley. In the early 1940s, the amount of uranium extracted was much less than what the Soviet researchers, led by Igor Kurchatov, would have needed to build the first atomic bomb. On November 27, 1942, the Soviet Ministry of Defense ordered uranium ore to be processed in a factory in Taboshar. The uranium shortage was initially the main obstacle to the nuclear program. The decree (No. 2542) of 1942, which was declared as top secret, provided for four tons of uranium ore to be extracted and processed in Taboshar and further uranium ore deposits to be developed. The management was entrusted to the "State Commission for Non-Ferrous Metals", which was already active in Central Asia. The plan has not been fully implemented. The first experimental uranium enrichment facilities in the Soviet Union, which began operations at the same time in 1945, were located in Taboshar and in Chkalovsk (Tajik Chkalow), ten kilometers southeast of Khujand, near the city of Ghafurow . A total of 5,392 tons of uranium ore were mined in the plants in Taboshar and Chkalovsk in 1945. All work steps to extract the first enriched uranium in the Soviet Union for the construction of an atom bomb were done manually. Chkalovsk was closed in the early 1950s, while the processing plant in Taboshar remained in operation until the early 1970s.

In the 1940s, displaced Germans who were settled as workers for uranium mining, built the single-family and row houses in Taboshar, which are unusual for Tajikistan. The number of Russian Germans in Tajikistan gradually increased, peaking in 1979 at 38,853. By 1989 that number had dropped to 32,678. Because of the economic collapse after the country gained independence in 1991, uranium mining in Tajikistan was stopped in 1992. During the ensuing civil war, which lasted until 1997, the Germans, with the exception of a tiny minority, emigrated mainly to Germany. There are practically no Germans living in the city today.

After Taboschar received city rights in 1993, it was renamed Istiqlol in 2012 , Tajik for “independence”.

In connection with uranium mining, the population of the place had risen rapidly from 857 (1939) to 11,283 (1959). After a temporary stagnation (1970: 10,871) it then rose above 14,716 (1979) to the previous high of 20,166 (1989). After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the population fell significantly to 12,237 (2000), but has been rising slowly since then: after 14,196 in the 2010 census, there were around 15,600 inhabitants in 2014.

Cityscape

Mud brick homestead, unplanned district in the north
Alt-Taboschar to the west. Left in the background is the highest spoil dump at 300 meters.

The geographic center of the city is a roundabout, towards which the access road heads from the south. The market with the only grocery stores in town is in a newer area with a few socialist apartment blocks from the second half of the 20th century on the southwestern outskirts. This is the terminus of the bus route from Khujand. A park extends north of the roundabout and leads to the representative building of the city administration.

The main street, which climbs further to the north, and two to three parallel side streets with tall, shade trees, open up the central city area over a length of around 1.5 kilometers. This is characterized by the single-family and row houses of the German settlers, which are unusual for Tajikistan. The houses have hipped roofs with dormer windows and several tall chimneys for individual stoves as well as large lattice windows. Some have a veranda or an arcade with round arches. Wooden fences along the sidewalks delimit small front gardens where fruit trees flourish. The two floors are separated by stepped cornices and provide a horizontal facade structure. Some houses are empty, most of them are in a neglected condition , especially on the roofs covered with gray fiber cement panels.

In the hill valleys further north there is an unplanned development with free-standing single-storey village houses, some of which were built from adobe bricks . They are surrounded by smaller outbuildings and stables. This area is accessed through curvy gravel roads.

An asphalt road leads east across the former uranium mining site to the settlement of Alt-Taboschar (Taboschari Kuhna, Табошари Кӯҳна ) a good three kilometers away , which is also recognizable as a German foundation. The predominantly single-storey apartment blocks are simpler and built in the manner of a workers' housing estate. They are located in a depression between stony hills immediately below the spoil heaps on their east side.

Uranium mine

Radioactive lake in the former uranium mine. In the background in the south spoil heaps

1.5 kilometers northeast of the German city center of Istiqlol begins the area belonging to the uranium mine, the area of ​​which is around two kilometers in diameter. The former uranium mine in the north of the road leading to Alt-Taboschar has become a deep blue lake, the water of which is radioactively contaminated. There are warning signs and a fence along the road to prevent people from entering the lake shore. From all other sides, the entire site is freely accessible to people, as well as grazing sheep and goats that drink from the lake. To the south of the road there are three spoil heaps, the largest of which protrudes 300 meters from the plain. The ruins of the production facilities, which closed in the 1970s, can be seen south of the street not far from the city. Here uranium ores from Meilisui, Uigur and Adrasman were processed.

The main ecological problem of the decommissioned uranium mine is the unprotected rubble heaps with 55 million tons of overburden, of which about twelve million tons consists of uranium-containing earth, the fine-grain mineral components ( tailings ) of which are carried away by the wind, especially in a southerly direction. Tailings are solved even in rain and on the south to the Syr Darya washed away influent stream Archasoi. Heavy rain repeatedly led to floods of mud in Istiqlol, which carried radioactive material far into the plain.

In 1945 the "Leninabad Mining and Chemical Combine" was founded for the extraction and processing of uranium in the countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In his successor, the state trade association Vostokredmet with headquarters in Chkalov has been operating in the western Ferghana Valley since 1992 . Dumps with tailings near Khujand, for which Vostokredmet is responsible, are at the settlement of Adrasmon (Adrasman; in the Kuramin Mountains east of Istiqlol), near the small town of Dechmoi (Digmai, about ten kilometers west of Khujand on the road Direction Istaravschan ), near Tschkalow and Ghafurow and immediately north of Khujand. The total uranium-bearing mass of these spoil heaps is 54.8 million tons with a total radiation activity of 6500 Curie , or 36 TBq (Tera becquerel ).

Most of the radioactive radiation emanates from the tailings in Istiqlol. One of the three heaps of 1.2 million tons on 2.9 hectares of the former processing plants is one kilometer from the residential area. The excavated material is covered by a 0.7–1 meter thick, neutral layer of earth, on the surface of which radiation of 0.40–0.60 µ Sv / h was measured (with a natural background radiation of 0.45 µSv). A dump of 7.6 million tons on 54.5 hectares, 1.5–2 kilometers from the inhabited area, is covered with a layer of earth of the same thickness, on the surface of which 40–70 µSv / h were measured. A hill two kilometers away containing 2.2 million tons of overburden on 3.6 hectares is completely uncovered and exposed to the weather. The measured radiation is 3–5 µSv / h. In addition, there is a ten hectare area on a river bed that radiates at up to 3 µSv / h on the surface. Officially, a value of 0.57 µSv / h is considered acceptable nationwide. According to a measurement from 2008, the uranium concentration in the lake water is relatively high at around 3 mg / l, but locals occasionally consume fish from the lake.

The tap water in the houses is undrinkable. The residents take water with plastic canisters from pipes on the roadside.

Istiqlol residents are exposed to more gamma radiation than the global average. Outdoors the gamma ray dose from 0.42 to 1.6 μ is Gy / h (correlated with the radon concentration of 120 to 900  Bq / m 3 ) and in closed spaces 0.1-1.3 μGy / h (radon concentration 80-1440 Bq / m 3 ). The calculated hypothetical radiation dose of 7.53 mSv per year absorbed by each resident is below the risk limit value of 10 mSv set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) in 2009. This is used to estimate the risk (statistical probability) of a serious illness caused by radiation for the population. For the residents of Istiqlol, the calculated radiation exposure results in a probability of five diseases of cancer and six other serious diseases based on all ages.

Eight out of ten former Soviet uranium mines in Tajikistan have been sealed. The two remaining open sites are Istiqlol and Dechmoi. It is considered urgently to be sealed, especially since the Ferghana Valley is in an earthquake risk area. The technical equipment required for this, however, would cost up to one million US dollars each, which the state cannot currently afford. By way of comparison: the cost of sealing the 400,000 tons of excavated material from Chkalovsk in 1991–92 was around ten million US dollars. Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations are trying to draw the population's attention to the dangers with signs and educational work.

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Population figures of Tajikistan 2014 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Tajik Statistics Agency (Tajik, Russian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stat.tj
  2. ↑ L. Skipperud, G. Strømman, M. Yunusov, P. Stegnar, B. Uralbekov, H.Tilloboev, G. Zjazjev, LS Heier, BO Rosseland, B. Salbu: Environmental impact assessment of radionuclide and metal contamination at the former U sites Taboshar and Digmai, Tajikistan . In: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, June 9, 2012, PMID 22687556 .
  3. ↑ China's Company Signs Contract with Gold Mining Joint Venture Aprelevka. Asia Plus, June 17, 2014
  4. ^ A b J. Otto Pohl: The Russian-Germans in Tajikistan . Otto's Random Thoughts, March 29, 2007
  5. ^ Heinrich Löwen: German Christians in Russia and in the Soviet Union: Basic features of the historical and theological background of Russian-German free churches. Disserta, Hamburg 2014, p. 35, ISBN 978-3954255603
  6. ↑ T. Tsukatani, K. Toderich, RI Goldstein: Uranium Mine Aftermath and Yangiabad Expedition in Uzbekistan. Discussion Paper No. 647. Kyoto Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University, March 2008, p. 2
  7. ^ Don J. Bradley: Behind the Nuclear Curtain: Radioactive Waste Management in the Former Soviet Union. Battelle Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1997, p. 52
  8. ^ Campbell Craig, Sergey Radchenko: The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War. Yale University Press, New Haven 2008, p. 52, ISBN 978-0300110289
  9. ^ Zhores A. Medvedev: Stalin and the Atomic Gulag. In: The Spokesman , No. 69, 2000, pp. 91-111, here p. 91
  10. ^ Yury A. Yudin (Ed.): Manuscript on the History of the Soviet Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Infrastructure (Technical Report on Tasks A-1 and A-2) . International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), ISTC Project 1763, p. 32
  11. ↑ U. Mirsaidov, J. Salomov, N. Hakimov: From History of Reception of Native Uranium. In: International Conference on Fifty Years of Nuclear Power - the Next Fifty Years. June 27 - July 2, 2004. International Atomic Energy Agency, Moscow / Obninsk, 2004, p. 162
  12. ↑ MM Yunusov, ZA Razikov, NI Bezzubov, Kh.I. Tilloboev: Rehabilitation of Uranium Mines in Northern Tajikistan . In: Brit Salbu, Lindis Skipperud (Ed.): Nuclear Risk in Central Asia . Springer Netherland, E-Book, April 8, 2008, p. 70
  13. ↑ JA Salomov, IU Mirsaidov, AM Barotov: About necessity of remediation and recultivation of Taboshar districts' tailings. Nuclear and Radiation Safety Agency, Tajikistan Academy of Sciences, Dushanbe
  14. ↑ Production Association Vostkredmet . tajik-gateway.org
  15. ↑ MM Yunusov, ZA Razikov, NI Bezzubov, Kh.I. Tilloboev: Rehabilitation of Uranium Mines in Northern Tajikistan, p. 71
  16. ^ Uzbekistan uranium. Appendix: Legacy wastes in Tajikistan . World Nuclear Association, 2014
  17. ↑ MM Yunusov, ZA Razikov, NI Bezzubov, Kh.I. Tilloboev: Rehabilitation of Uranium Mines in Northern Tajikistan , p. 73
  18. ^ Mark Vinson: The Legacy of Soviet Nuclear Industry in Tajikistan: Opportunities and Challenges. In: Eurasia Daily Monitor, No. 9, Issue 81, April 30, 2012
  19. ↑ Taboshar: High uranium concentrations found in water and fish from pit lake of former Taboshar uranium mine . Decommissioning Projects - Asia, WISE, September 29, 2014
  20. ↑ Nigam Singh Silwal: Assessment of radon and gamma in the Taboshar mining site, Tajikistan . (Master Thesis) Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 2012, pp. III, 32, 34
  21. ↑ Maks Maksudov: Tajikistan seeks help to clean up uranium dumps. Country seeks international help to deal with nuclear weapons legacy. ( Memento from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Central Asia Online, June 27, 2012
  22. ↑ Farangis Najibullah: Tajikistan's Former Soviet Nuclear Sites Pose Threat To Nearby Villages. Radio Free Europe, April 8, 2009